Needle coke, as a high value-added product in the coal and petroleum industries, is an essential raw material for producing ultra-high-power graphite electrodes, and its domestic demand is increasing. Due to the lack of in-depth understanding of the production process of needle coke, high-quality needle coke has not yet been produced on a large scale in China. In recent years, more and more researchers have turned their attention to modifying raw materials through various methods to expand the selection range of raw materials and improve their properties, thereby producing high-quality needle coke. In this paper, the effects of different component and structure in raw materials on the preparation of needle coke were reviewed, and the requirements of composition and properties for raw materials were summarized. Good raw materials should have low quinoline-insoluble, low impurity atom content, and high aromatic content, while also having moderate reactivity. The pretreatment can effectively improve the composition of raw materials and remove the components which are harmful to the formation of mesophase. By comparison, the combination of multiple pretreatment methods can get better effect than single pretreatment method, pre-heating can reduce the impact of small molecular compounds on subsequent reactions. Co-carbonization method is the most commonly used preparation method. Among the three co-carbonization agents, the nucleation-induced agents can play a nucleus role in the formation of mesophase spheres and promote the formation of mesophase, but may introduce impurities that cannot be assimilated. Polycondensation catalysts can greatly shorten the reaction time, but are not conducive to controlling the reaction in a stable and difficult to be removed from the product. Raw material modifiers can improve the performance of needle coke products and reduce the cost by optimizing the composition of raw materials, which has the best application prospect in industrial production. Coal dense medium component (DMC) separated by extraction and back-extraction method is the origin substance to form mesophase in coking coals. As a new high-quality raw material for needle coke producing, DMC has many advantages such as low ash content, low quinoline insoluble content, high hydrogen carbon ratio, and not require further pretreatment process. The mesophase and needle coke prepared from DMC have excellent performances.